The search for new oil and gas resources and the expansion of the current resource base is an ongoing and expensive procedure. In 1988 the oil and gas industry in the United States spent over $12,000,000,000 on exploration. Since the oil crisis of the late 1970s, the industry has actively tried to expand and develop new resources as well as extend the life of its current resources. New oil exploration and the expansion of current resources is a time-consuming process. Like most exploration industries the oil and gas industry has reached an advanced level of sophistication; however, it still relies heavily on luck and determination to extend its wealth. New, routine, and inexpensive procedures that enhance the probability of finding new reserves are very attractive to the industry. Especially attractive are procedures that have the potential for use during the field component of the exploration cycle.
The oil and gas industry relies heavily on a combination of physical, geological, and chemical methods for exploration. Current chemical analytical procedures require specialized equipment and a high level of technical competence. There is typically a considerable delay between acquiring a sample and the completion of an analysis. Furthermore, due to the often trace amounts of oil in the samples, significant quantities of sample are required, e.g., 50-100 grams.
The industry has collected a large reservoir of sediment samples during the past twenty years of exploration. It would be advantageous for the industry to reevaluate these samples for an indication of the presence of exploitable petroleum deposits. The resulting data may allow an oil company to significantly expand its current resources or find new resources without having to reenter the field cycle for further collection. This form of exploration is extremely cost-effective and could contribute significantly to the expansion of the industry's reserves.
There are also a series of developments exploring the use of so-called "biodegrading bacteria" as a way to explore for oil in sediments. Two approaches are used here. One involves the development of specific probes to detect quantities of bacteria in the soil samples. These can be further subdivided into immunological and DNA-based procedures. In both cases the procedure relies on the detection of a unique characteristic of the bacteria of interest. The underlying assumption is that the presence of the bacteria or its unique biochemical component is directly or indirectly related to the presence of oil in the soil or sediment which corresponds to an underlying oil formation. The second approach involves analyzing soil samples for their potential biodegradability. This involves the use of known biodegrading bacteria which are inoculated into the soil samples. The amount of growth of the bacteria or production of some byproduct of degradation, such as CO.sub.2, is then used to evaluate the amount of oil available. The advantage of these methods is that they tend to be very sensitive and can be performed relatively quickly. However, they have not gained wide acceptance in the industry, primarily because performing direct measurements of oil in soil when possible is more direct and is currently easier to interpret.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for new methods for facilitating a determination of the presence of petroleum deposits. There is also a need for simple and economical methods of determining the presence of hydrocarbons and other organic chemicals in samples.